As we moved out of Fortaleza’s extensive outskirts everything started automatically to make sense. I found myself forgetting to worry about forecasts, wind conditions, possible sessions and increasingly embracing what I had.
The rhythm of our lives started to melt into the local rhythm of timeless collective rituals only affected by the cycles of Nature. Of course, there’s a fast, hectic and emerging Brazil out there, but the one we experienced was rather different. We visited countless fishing villages during our trip. One street, a few shops, one church, one soccer field: this was the typical configuration. One time I was going to the market to buy fruits and vegetables with them, one time I was participating in pulling the boats ashore with them, one time I was going to the church with them, one time I was joining them for an improvised soccer game on the beach. This is the true anthropologic, and human, experience I was looking for! This is what I consider travelling. Not only physical displacement, but rather an immersive experience – actually the most immersive of all – into others’ lives and habits. All this would have proven much more difficult on a surf trip where the car is overloaded with boardbags and the time and plans are dictated by the winds and swells. Somehow having a rudimentary, yet innovative, inflatable touring board under your feet makes you naturally able to dial in the rhythms of the local communities and their habits, ultimately making some human encounters to give sense to the whole trip.
